TELEVISION DOCTOR GREGORY HOUSE made famous the maxim
“Everybody lies.” When it comes to reporting whether we’ve
lost or gained weight over the previous year, we may not be
lying exactly but many of us are guilty of wishful thinking.

UW researchers Catherine Wetmore (now with the Children’s
National Medical Center) and Ali Mokdad of the UW
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation indicate that Americans did
a poor job of estimating their own weight change over a one-year period.
Obesity increased in the U.S. between 2008 and 2009, but in response to the questions about year-to-year changes in weight that were
included in the most widespread public health survey in the
country, on average, people said they lost weight.

“People tended to say they lost weight over the past year but
we know on average that they gained about 1.3 pounds per
person. That roughly translates to an underreporting of 300 million
pounds. Some people are clearly in touch with changes in
their weight. If we average out the discrepancy between calculated
and reported changes in body weight, we arrive at the 1.3
pounds,” said Wetmore, the study’s lead author.

Men did a worse job estimating their own weight changes
than women. And older adults were less attuned to their weight
changes than younger adults. Not everyone reported losing
weight. The researchers found that reports of unintentional
weight gain were more common in certain groups including:

Men and women under the age of 40

Those identifying as black, Native American, or Hispanic

Current and former smokers

Those consuming less than five servings of fruits and vegetables
per day

The researchers said that the fact that many adults aren’t in
touch with changes in their body weight might make it harder to
be motivated to lose weight. “Misreporting of weight gains and
losses also has policy implications,” Wetmore says. “If we had
relied on the reported data about weight change between 2008
and 2009, we would have undercounted about 4.4 million obese
adults in the U.S.”

More than 775,000 people were surveyed, and they were asked
multiple questions about their weight. Based on the weight
they reported, the prevalence of obesity in the U.S. would have
declined from 2008 to 2009. Instead, the rate of obesity increased
from 26 percent to 26.5 percent.

(FAT FACTS)

According to the Centers for Disease Control:

A third of American adults are overweight. Another third are
obese. Combined, 68.8 percent of U.S. adults are either overweight
or obese.

Obesity is a contributing factor in five of the top 10 contributing
factors of death: heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes,
kidney disease.

Losing as little as 5 to 7 percent of a person’s total weight lowers
blood pressure, improves blood-sugar levels and lowers diabetes
by nearly 60 percent in people with pre-diabetes.